weekend photos

1. Rhubarb jam with lots of vanilla, my sister's recipe.
2. Dinner.
3.+4. The girls.
5. A really nice soapbox car we passed on our bike ride today - made out of an old pram and a chair seat. Would be nice to make something similar for the kids when we go to our Swedish house during the summer vacation.
6. Tiny tarts with summer berries and skyr.

backyard life

It's growing down there!
The flower in the top photo is a favourite this year - it's a sage with tiny flowers in douce rose.

my home today

Frida Viola is having a summer cold and this night it evolved into a pseudo croup ("falsk strubehoste" in Danish - quite scary but harmless), so she's at home with me. It's good to have her around unexpectedly and with no plans.

1. The girls eat a lot of peas.
2. Frida Viola this morning (in a nightgown that used to be mine when I was little).
3. A favourite summer dress of mine - originally it was A's mom's but I have been wearing it every summer the past 6 years.
4. Molly, my Molly.
5. Bedroom.
6. Reading.

food

we like eating simple food during the summer months using as many locally grown vegetables as possible. We still have our weekly veggie box from aarstiderne - at this time of the year we choose "dogmekassen" with only Danish crops:

1. Sweet corn, caprese & parsley pesto.
2. Pizza with lovage pesto, new potatoes, new onions, new carrots, kohlrabi & Danish goat cheese.
3. Rye pie with broccoli, egg & manchego.
4. Just coffee.

chalk

Chalk jellyfish by Zaki Arifin.

Midsummer

We all went to my sister's place this weekend to celebrate Midsummer. They have a big garden, and the scenery was perfect for a Midsummer evening with a bonfire - but then we had rain. So we made a small fire and the kids made little witches for the fire. It's a Danish tradition symbolizing the purging of evil. Frida Viola didn't want to burn off her witch, though, as you might see in the photo ;-)

Happy Midsummer to all of you.

inevitable

Molly, my sweet little Molly, in one week she will start up in nursery. Something we look forward to with mixed feelings. It's inevitable, and she so ready to take this step, but at the same time starting in institution is also the first step towards the "loss of  innocence" that we have tried to protect her against as long as possible. I know it might sound like a cliché but this is how we feel and what we have experienced with her older sister.

pustefix

Some summer favourites at the moment:

1. Danish grown tomatoes.
2. Coffee - we drink a lot at the moment, made with our old caffetieres & with our favourite beans from here.
3. "Pustefix" bubbles has the prettiest bottle and makes nice rainbow bubbles :)

granddad

These roses used to grow in my granddad's garden. When he passed away, and later when my grandmom moved away from their farmhouse, my parents took some cuttings from granddad's roses. Now they grow in my mom's garden. Look at the colour, deep coral - it's almost unreal.

my home today

1. Thistle from our walk today.
2. Morning light in our new bathroom. Ohh it has taken us so long to get this far and we are not at all finished yet. I will skip telling you about all the troubles we have met during the process. Now we feel confident with the result.
3. The laundry. Always the laundry.
4. More peeking into the bathroom.
5. Lavender for the backyard.

Henrietta has moved in

I finished my work at Meyer-Lavigne a couple of weeks ago and since that we have had a new little friend in the home. In the beginning she had a wild and untamed hair style with these flowers and now she has a more lasting succulent. The girls have a hard time keeping their hands off her - she looks so playful and appealing to them.

Find Meyer-Lavigne's flower me happy pots here!

Now I am looking forward to see Meyer-Lavigne's new website and blog online :)
(and I will link as soon as it is ready, the existing website is broken)

summer colours

1. New little ballerinas for Molly in a beautiful summer colour and a nice book from my childhood in very bright colours.
2. More from the flora book.
3. Very happy bucket from the flea market.

Madlenka by Peter Sís

Madlenka by Czech-born American illustrator Peter Sís is a beautiful book I came across a while ago. I wasn't familiar with the author but the very fine and delicate illustrations captured me, and the book has already become a favourite among us. The story is quite simple - the little girl Madlenka lives in New York ("In the universe, on a planet, on a continent, in a country, in a city, on a block, in a house...", as the story begins). One day she discovers she has a rocking tooth. Madlenka wants to tell all her friends about it and runs down the stairways out on the street. Her walk around the block brings us all around the world - we meet Monsieur Gaston from the French patisserie, Mr. Singh from the kiosk, Signor Ciao from the Italian ice cream van, Eduardo from the Latin American greengrocer etc...Every place we visit has a little cut out window we can enter and get a peek into other worlds. There are so many fine little details in the book and I regret my photos didn't turn out better - but I hope they do give you an impression anyway.

Madlenka Soccer Star - do see the little book trailer!

backyard life

We are getting more and more happy with the backyard (pretending it's a real garden, I guess). It's so good to be outside and still at home.

1. Flora book from the thrift store.
2. The girls had a nice little play house for their birthdays - and this beautiful weather vane for the roof top.
3. Rhurbarbs from a friend's garden.
4. Molly in the play house today.
5. This evening in the couch.
6. Favourite salad at the moment: goat cheese, asparagus, nectarine, dried blueberries, pine nuts and green leaves.